Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Wolfden To Shut Down; IOCC To Provide Web

When the Prescott Community Freenet Association (PCFA) was formed two and a half years ago, it had two goals, according to Danny Stewart, who established it.

The first was to provide low cost Internet access to the Prescott telephone exchange (at the time $5 an hour was common). The second was to make community information available to World Wide Web.

PCFA has been successful on both goals, Stewart says. Now, both will become more permanent and PCFA's constant financial strain is being eliminated.

Stewart has announced that PCFA has "made arrangements with a commercial Internet service provider (ISP) to come to Prescott by Jan. 1, 1998." In making the selection, PCFA wanted to find one of the best ISPs in the nation, he said, "one with a solid reputation of providing excellent service to its customers and being concerned that customers seldom receive busy signals.

"The provider we selected is the Internet of Clark County. IOCC initially plans to install a 128kbps internet circuit and 12 phone lines in Prescott," Stewart said.

The monthly fee of $22.95 (plus tax) is for unlimited access. Payment may be made by credit card, bank draft or check.

Account applications are available locally at NAPA (Auto Parts and Supply) and at the Bank of Prescott. Or you may contact IOCC directly by calling (870) 246-6923. The fax number is (870) 246-6924, and the e-mail address is: phelps@iocc.com

Snail mail can be sent to Internet of Clark County, LLC, 611 Main Street, Arkadelphia, AR 71923.

"We need to get account applications to IOCC as soon as possible so they can begin getting all the work done for the accounts," Stewart said. "Please try to have them in by the end of November."

In exchange for PCFA recom-

mending all its users subscribe to IOCC, IOCC will make available a `tap' for the PCFA.ORG computer. The tap allows the PCFA.ORG computer to continue serving the World Wide Web pages and provide free Internet accounts to everyone on the Prescott telephone exchange.

Internet access on the PCFA.ORG computer will be limited to text-based e-mail and web browsing and POP3 mail retrieval from any computer on the Internet. Daily limits of 15 minutes will be imposed on each user, because the number of telephone lines will be reduced drastically.

PCFA.ORG users need to be changing all references in their Web browsers and e-mail clients from

www.pcfa.org to pcfa.org in order to make the transition smooth (both work now).

Account names will remain the same as they are now on the PCFA.ORG (PCFA.ORG) computer. Your account name at IOCC will be based on availability.

PCFA.ORG will be able to forward e-mail, if desired, to the IOCC account (IOCC will provide e-mail assistance only in connection with their mail server).

Since July 1995, PCFA's internet connection has been furnished by the Prescott Schools and the Arkansas Public School Computer Network (APSCN). With the new educational discount rates for Internet service came regulations that prohibit the "resale" of Internet services -- and what PCFA.ORG does is considered "resale" even though no money changes hands and PCFA is a non-profit organization.

This decision means PCFA.ORG has to get off the APSCN circuits. "Our only options were to shut down or find a good commercial provider," Stewart said.

The Bank of Prescott is making the space available to house the servers and will allow PCFA to use some telephone lines after banking hours.